Someone from the True Realm is Here! Huo Yuanhong is This Strong!? Bombard the City Fortress!

The stockaded city in the afternoon crouched by the harbor like a colossal beast. Filthy water streamed through the alleys, rubbish lay piled in heaps, and addicts curled up in the dark corners.

This lawless enclave within the city teemed with chaos and crime—smuggling, tobacco dealing, selling flesh, everything imaginable. No one knew whether the person next door was a wanted criminal, and even the police were unwilling to venture deep inside to investigate cases.

"Uncle Chen, could you spare a small fish for Little One's porridge?"

A Ping, a Chaozhou woman with a headscarf wrapped around her head, squatted before a pile of rubble and handed the fishmonger a pair of newly woven straw sandals.

"Only fish heads left! The docks have been sealed these past few days, ships can't get in. Why don't you go find One-Eyed Dragon? He took in a basket of fresh goods this morning..."

Uncle Chen, the fishmonger, huddled in the shadow of a broken wall. His bamboo basket was piled with pungent miscellaneous fish heads, with flies buzzing overhead.

As they spoke, a gaunt dog suddenly darted out and snatched up the fish guts lying nearby. So enraged was the fishmonger that he threw a stone after it, cursing nonstop.

Just then, two shadows fell over them, enveloping the crouching Uncle Chen and A Ping. The two instinctively looked up. Against the light, they could make out two tall, powerfully built men. Merely standing there with the sun at their backs, their size carried an oppressive air. They wore washed-out gray cloth shirts and straw hats, and one of them was pushing a wheelbarrow, as though they had come to deliver goods to the gangs and tobacco dealers in the stockaded city.

"Old man, it's our first time delivering here. Are there many